How To Hang A Dart Board

Interested in playing darts? Learn how to set up your own dartboard as a world champion dart player shows you the basics.

Okay, supposing you've taken up darts and you want to set up a dartboard at home. I'm going to show you how to do that in a very quick and simple way. The most important thing to remember is that the dartboard must be set up at the correct height, and that you're throwing from the correct distance.

This is invariable right across the world. Everybody throws from the same distance, everybody throws at a board the same height and if you want to become a champion, you need to practice with a board set exactly correctly. I'll show you how that's done.

It is very simple. When you purchase a new dartboard in the box, with the dartboard, comes a little packet like this with the fittings, and here, they are actually put onto the wall. Now, you've got to make sure that that spot there is the center of the board and that is going to be five foot eight inches from the floor.

Now, Unicorn manufacture a marvelous little gizmo called an oche mate which makes this job very very simple and I'll show you how to use it. This is an oche mate, very very simple piece of kit. It makes life much easier.

You have to first of all make sure that the bull is five foot eight inches from the floor. To do that, there is a little blue point. Now, that is five foot eight inches which means that the bull is set at the correct height.

Next thing you do is put the dartboard onto that fitting. You'll notice here that there's a U-shaped groove in that metal plate. Turn the dartboard over.

There's a screw that you have to attach yourself to a marked spot absolutely dead center of the dartboard. It's a simple matter then in locating the back screw into the slot. You may require to put wedges depending on what sort of wall you're mounting the dartboard on.

Make sure it's vertical and I recommend you use a safety surround for two reasons. One, it's very pleasing to the eye. If you're standing on an oche that looks attractive, it's probably going to make you want to play darts better than you have done before.

Two, of course, for the safety point of it. Dart misses, it will stick into this and cause no damage. I doubt very much if your parents or other halves would like very much to have holes all around the wall around the dartboard so one of these is essential.

So today, we're using a top of the range dartboard that's used in all major televised events that you'll see on sky TV today. It's an extremely fine piece of work. The doubles and triples are extremely well-defined.

The wired are quite fine, and it's a pleasure to play on basically. There are, of course, a range of dartboards from a very very junior piece of kit right through to the Eclipse Pro, but the basic principle of hanging the dartboard remains the same whether it's a paperboard or a top Eclipse Pro board. Now, when it comes to measuring the distance you throw from, of course, that is vital that you get it correct.

Oche mate makes it very very easy and I'll show you how that's done. Now, it is possible to measure this on your own using an oche mate but it's easier if you've got an assistant so I'll ask Matt to come and help me. Basically, what we're going to do is again using oche mate, the little red disc there that goes onto the bull again, now all I do is put a dart through it.

I'll ask Matt to pop that in the bull's eye right in the middle, tight to the board. Pull the tape tight. Where this touches the floor there, that will be the mark that you throw from which will be seven foot nine and a quarter if you take a line straight to the center of the bull.

If you take the angled line, the hypotenuse of the triangle, then it is nine foot seven and a half inches. All dimensions incidentally are beautifully written on the back of the oche mate so you really can't go wrong. Now, that's how to hang a dartboard whether it's for a world championship final or a friendly game of 501. .